Blues even series by smashing
SharksEverything goes wrong for SJ in Game
4

5/21/16 - By Mike Lee -

When the Sharks beat the St Louis Blues in Game 2
at Scottrade Center, they stole home ice advantage as the series shifted back
to San Jose. The Sharks imploded in Game 4 on Saturday afternoon, to hand that
advantage right back to the Blues. Holding a 2-1 series lead, the Sharks played
like a team that expected the Blues to roll over and hand them the series. Not
so fast. The Blues landed a throat shot to the lethargic Sharks to even the
series with a resounding 6-3 win at SAP Center.

This one wasn't even
close. The Sharks could never match the Blues intensity, which is hard to
fathom, given the dominance they exuded in Games 2 & 3. It was the perfect
example of why it's so hard to win the Stanley Cup. You actually have to work
for it.

And the Sharks didn't do a single thing to try and earn a
victory in this game. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, because the
Sharks didn't put in the effort required to win a regular season game, much
less Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals.

The Blues on the other
hand were in jeopardy of falling behind 3-1 in the series had they lost. Now
the Blues hold the advantage, because this has become a best of three series,
in which two of those three games will be played in St Louis.

San Jose
was either unprepared or incapable of stepping up their game against a tougher
team when it mattered the most. In either case, it's not a good sign for the
Sharks. An unprepared team at this stage of the playoffs is destined for an
exit. If it was a matter of complacency, then San Jose has 48 hours to get
their house in order.

Things started badly for San Jose, then
snowballed throughout the period. Tomas Hertl is still wondering what day of
the week it is after getting leveled by Troy Brouwer with an elbow as he tried
pursuing a puck. Brouwer made no attempt to play the puck and impeded the
Sharks forward with a shot that should have been called interference. But like
so many instances in the playoffs, the on-ice officials don't want to influence
the outcome of the game, so the Blues skated on, while Hertl left the ice to
try and gather his senses.

Referee Gord Dwyer didn't miss a Brent
Burns tripping infraction three minutes later that put the Blues on the first
of their two power plays in the period. Brouwer made it a 1-0 game on the
ensuing power play by pumping a one-time chance from between the slot and the
bottom of the right circle after Robby Fabbri fed him the puck from the right
corner.

Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer challenged that the Blues were
offside as they entered the Sharks zone before the Brouwer goal, but replays
confirmed that all five St Louis players followed the puck across the blueline.

The Blues made it a 2-0 game 4 minutes later off a catastrophic gaff
by defenseman Paul Martin. The Sharks defenseman tried carrying the puck out of
his own end, but turned it over as the Blues forecheck swarmed the front of the
Sharks net. Sharks goaltender Martin Jones made a nice stop on a chance by
Fabbri from in tight, but Martin had tried swiping the puck clear with hi stick
and lost his balance in the slot. Martin just sat watching the play develop as
the puck finally made its way to Jori Lehtera's stick a mere 6 feet away.

Had Martin got up and rejoined the action, he would have had a chance
to defend against Lehtera, but instead the puck ended up in the Sharks net.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic was sent off for slashing with 25
seconds left in the period, but the Sharks managed to make it to the
intermission only down by a pair of goals. Logan Couture setup a Blues 5-on-3
48 seconds into the 2nd period by swatting a puck over the glass.

San
Jose continued their rag tag play even after going on the power play
themselves. Kevin Shattenkirk was sent off for interference 5:10 into the
period, but then the Sharks somehow allowed the Blues to generate a 2-on-1
break that resulted in a Kyle Brodziak short-handed goal. Joe Thornton made a
peculiar pass to an invisible Sharks player on the right side, but invisible
plays aren't very useful in hockey games. That pass ended up on Jaden Schwartz
stick and the Blues were off to the races.

That 4th goal would end
Jones night, as DeBoer elected to pull hi goaltender and subject James Reimer
to the thrill of defending an opponent with little to no defensive support up
front. It was Reimer's first appearance in the playoffs, but it would not be
perfect debut.

The Sharks finally solved Blues goaltender Jake Allen,
who made his first start of the series after Blues head coach pulled Brian
Elliott, early in the 3rd period. Joe Pavelski scored his 10th goal of the
playoffs on a tap in after Thornton sent a saucer pass from the left side.
Thornton had to thread a needle, putting his pass between three Blues
defenders.

Anything positive that might have come from that goal was
quickly erased after Joel Ward committed another boneheaded delay of game
penalty. That of course, resulted in another goal, as Brouwer deflected an Alex
Steen shot past James Reimer for the 5-1 lead.

Chris Tierney made it a
5-2 game at the 6:57 mark by bouncing a shot off Allen's back after the Sharks
finally figured out to push the puck to the front of the Blues net.

San Jose elected to pull Reimer with 5 minutes to play, figuring that their
goaltenders weren't stopping anything anyway, so why not throw an extra
attacker out there. That backfired when Alex Pietrangelo lifted the puck out of
his own zone, then watched as the puck turned on edge and took a sharp left
turn right into the Sharks goal.

It was the perfect example of
everything going wrong for San Jose.

The Sharks tacked on one more
meaningless goal with 3:32 to play, but it wasn't even a Shark who scored the
goal. Joel Edmundson slapped at a puck that slipped between Allen's pads, but
the goal was credited to Melker Karlsson, the last Shark to touch the puck
before Edmundson's handy work.

SHARE THIS STORY:

What did you think of
this article? Post your comments on the Feeder Forums

What did you
think of this story? Post your comments on the Feeder Forums